How to share destination wedding photos

Posted on November 4, 2015

On the whole, destination weddings tend to be smaller affairs than formal ceremonies closer to home. Time, distance and cost all play their part in the decision making process for prospective guests, but sometimes the bride and groom’s preference is for an intimate service with only a handful of friends in attendance. Either way, it’s easier than ever to share your wedding photos with those who couldn’t be there on the day – and we’ve got the lowdown on the best social media solutions and sharing apps out there.

Share intimate moments with your loved ones

Facebook is the most obvious place to start, and the ubiquitous service certainly offers a great set of tools for casually sharing photos with friends and family. But the images are compressed for viewing, so if you’re looking for a higher quality experience, try something different. Other big name services worth considering include Flickr, Google Photo, Microsoft’s Xim, Apple iCloud and Amazon Cloud Drive.

Flickr offers a gigantic 1TB of free space and an ability to both upload and download photos at a variety of resolutions, including the – often very large – original size. This option to download the highest quality version available makes it a great, easy-to-use solution for those who want to select specific images to print and frame.

Previously part of social network Google+, the new Google Photos service also offers unlimited full-resolution uploads for photo and video along with plenty of other nice-to-have features like collages and the ability to create GIF-like animations. Share your photos via a link, which can be accessed by anyone on any device.

Retain the quality of your beautiful wedding shots by using these photo sharing tools

Microsoft’s Xim app allows you to create and share photo slideshows from your mobile device, which can then be accessed simultaneously by anyone you choose, and they don’t need to have the app installed in order to view. The app is even compatible with digital media players like Apple TV, Xbox One and many others, giving friends the choice of viewing your collection on virtually any TV.

If you’re an Apple user, Apple’s iCloud Photo Library launched this summer and seamlessly syncs all your images across all your devices. The ability to create a shared library makes it easy for friends and family to access your albums, and they can even contribute their own photos and videos too.

Similarly, Amazon Cloud Drive offers 5GB of free storage to all its customers, with free unlimited storage if you’re a member of Amazon Prime. Access your photos via a free mobile or desktop app, send a shareable link to your family and friends, and back-up your images on the go.

Keep a memory of the little details that made your destination wedding so special

Other popular options include Photobucket or This Life, both of which can be integrated with Facebook and other apps, as well as paid-for, higher end services like SmugMug, Photoshelter or 500px (which offers a basic free account) whose eye-pleasing galleries and high resolutions are especially popular with professional photographers and keen amateurs.

Finally, if you’re especially proud of your wedding photos why not try and make a little money from them? Stock photography sites like Picfair allow you to upload any images you might wish to licence to commercial entities, allowing you to set your price as you please.

Publications such as wedding magazines and websites are always in need of suitable imagery to run alongside their articles, so if you have decent photos of your dream beachside location or close-up details of cake decorations, shoes, flowers and so on, consider offering them in return for a fee. Pictures with people in are also sought after, but if you don’t want to be recognisable choose images like a silhouette of the just-married couple against a sunset background, a from-behind shot of the bridal gown, or a crowd scene shot from a distance. Be creative, and you could soon find your dream wedding has a much wider audience than first envisaged!